Battle of Ba Gia

The Battle of Ba Gia was a battle of the Vietnam War which was fought from 28 to 31 May 1965.

Following the Battle of Binh Gia earlier in 1965, the government of North Vietnam decided to escalate its efforts to topple the US-backed South Vietnamese government. In the first half of 1965, the Soviet Union and China stepped up the amount of military aid which they provided to the NVA. In 1965, the NVA launched a summer offensive, with Ba Gia being its first target. An entire ARVN task force was annihilated by the Viet Cong at Ba Gia, with an ARVN force of 2,500 troops suffering 1,885 losses in a horrendous defeat. By the end of May 1965, the Viet Cong (supported now by four NVA regular regiments, 5,000 troops) were destroying the equivalent of an ARVN battalion every week, and South Vietnam now seemed only weeks from collapse. This led to the US MACV commander William Westmoreland asking President Lyndon B. Johnson for tens of thousands more of US troops to help the collapsing ARVN with holding back the Viet Cong.